The government has decided not to charge war-wounded freedom fighters and families of martyred freedom fighters’ for up to Tk600 of usage on state-owned BTCL land lines, a BTCL high-up confirmed yesterday.
The government giving its consent has already sent a letter to the BTCL. The decision may come in effect as early as this month.
“We have received a letter regarding an offer for the freedom fighters this week, and it would be effective immediately,” SOM Kalim Ullah, managing director of BTCL told the Dhaka Tribune yesterday.
“As we do not have any idea about how many war-wounded freedom fighters or family of martyred freedom fighters are there thus we need to fix some criteria or need to seek help from the ministry of Liberation war affairs in this regard,” he said.
According to the letter, wounded freedom fighters or the family of martyred freedom fighters who are subscribing to BTCL’s land phones can enjoy this service. Source at the BTCL, however, said they can only enjoy voice calls, not internet or other services.
To obtain the service, freedom fighters or their family members were advised to contract the BTCL immediately.
Statistics till June 2013 show BTCL has 903,299 subscribers. Call rate per minute from BTCL to BTCL between 8AM and 8PM was Tk0.30 while from 8PM to 8AM it costs only Tk0.10. In comparison, calls from BTCL to other operators costs Tk0.80 per minute.
It has a monthly line rent as well. For Dhaka, Chittagong and Khulna multi-exchange it costs Tk160 and for in district and upazila level Tk120 and Tk80 each month respectively.
Earlier, state-owned mobile phone operator Teletalk presented the wounded freedom fighters with special SIM cards on the eve of Independence Day this year.
